'CASH FOR EDITORIALS' -- THE LETTER TRAIL -- I

Guys...We are overwhelmed.
Thanks a lot for sticking by Penpricks. Our big story was incidentally the 200th entry on our blog. For us anonymous bloggers to have enjoyed such a committed readership, really pushes us on. We have tried to respond to most of the comments we've received. Apologies, if we've missed out some.
Now, let's get back to business.
We'd promised to run the series of emails exchanged between Herald's Corporate Development and E marketing head Harry Mann and Penpricks (posing as Manoj Rastogi of Acer Consultants... Hey BTW guys you wanna know why we called our fictitious firm ACER? Cause on the day we conceptualised the story, we were working on a friend's Acer laptop ;) Funny na...)
Here's the first few mails. We write first... and Mr Mann responds with lots of advertising spiel. We are doing this in order to bring forth the entire conversation before our readers so that there is no scope for ambiguity. We'll also try and guide you along, as the conversation progresses.
We picked up a couple of email IDs on Herald's website and punched in this mail. Knowing that someone would respond. We just looked up the Delhi map on the internet and decided that Connaught place was as good a place as any to set up our fictitious company 'Acer Consultants'. We started this company the 'word by word' way, rather than the more conventional 'brick by brick' method. PJ. We positioned ourselves as a business with an expertise in packaging and marketing vacations. Here's our mail.

From: Acer Consultants [mailto:acerconsultants@consultant.com]
To: info@oheraldo.in,mail@heraldgoa.com,erep@oheraldo.in
Sent: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:38:43 -0500
Subject: ATTN MR SAVIO... BUSINESS QUERY
Dear Mr Savio,
We are Delhi based consultants speacialising in marketing vacation packages abroad, especially the South Asian and South East Asia region.
We are a 15 crore company based in Delhi with offices in the capitals of four South Asian countries, namely Sri Lanka, Thailand etc.
This Diwali and New Year we are in the process of making a strategic marketing thrust in Goa.
We'd like to know if you offer editorial space for write ups as a package deal with advertisements placed.
We'd like to know your editorial policies on the issue, we've stated above.
Our advertising spend for the forthcoming season vis a vis Goa is Rs 15 lakh approx. We are weighing options as to where we could get the best returns for our spend.
We have already written to your newspaper twice. once on this corpdevt_herald@yahoo.com and the other on the nfo@oheraldo.in address.
This is the last mail we write to you, before we seek other regional options. We request you to respond ASAP.
Regards
Manoj Rastogi
Manager -- Business Relations
THE VACATION SPECIALISTS
A-54 Cannaught place
New Delhi 110001

And here was Mr Harry Mann's reply. Guys... we were shocked to see the way this guy writes. For a moment we thought this was some dumb sub editor from the Herald writing to us. Check out these errors in the mail. Hey BTW, some of your believe that Harry Mann does not exist (we believe beyond doubt that he does... We've seen him... met him too)... So guys who'd really like to know if Harry Mann exists, call him on 9975594535 and ask for him. And let us know on the blog...;) Hey and BTW Harry Mann claims that the acronym HCN stands for Hottest Cable Network... Didn't we know it as Herald Cable Network? ;)

hi, glad to hear from you and by way this is Harry Mann handling the corporate development of HERALD PUBLICATION for marketing improvement and emarketing campaign. We are interested to have business with you, I would be very happy to hear from you please contact me at my mobile number 9975594535 or 0832 242 22859. We can give you a package as what you need.If you can send me your promo schedule so that we can give the best offer.
However, we are developing our website and we are hitting an average of 118,000 viewers a day. We have this HERALD HOTEL PARTNERS and we are selling this internationally, HERALD ON BOARD this is for the airlines and HERALD TOUR PACKAGE our target are the travel agency.
This is a new concept and development of our WEBSITE to cater more customers traffic.
HERALD PUBLICATION is coming up a TV CHANNEL this coming SEPTEMBER 30, 2007 called HCN (Hottest Channel Network). This channel is all about hard news, entertainment, lifestyle, sports and a lot more. I would like to share with you about this channel also. We are having a PRE-SELLING right now,and we are giving good discounts
Here at HERALD PUBLICATION, HERALD WEBSITE AND HCN we offer you more than your ADVERTSING PACKAGE. Combine innovative design and ideas with the knowledge of exactly where to place your advertisement for maximum impact and that means ? the right media, the right position and the right price.
HARRY MANN
COPRORATE DEVELOPMENT HEAD

More mails follow tomorrow...